About the only thing that has not gone through the roof in recent years is the personal income of the average American. Seems so unfair that incomes are stalled or reduced while everything else goes up, up, up.

There’s not much we can do to ease the burden on an immediate basis but pursuing some level of higher ed is likely to arm us with the credentials we’ll need to land a job that pays better in the future.

Depending upon the level of your current education, higher ed may take a while but, in the meantime, those scary prices are just going to continue to rise. The sooner you can work up a better income, the better your chances of staying afloat.

To research the value of higher ed, just look over some job ads in the paper or on the internet. You may even be able to access job descriptions and their pay scales offered by your current employer, too.

What are you likely to find? You’ll see that people with a higher ed level almost always have access to higher pay.

In some cases, higher ed will mean you qualify for a job but will likely get higher pay for a higher degree. This is often the case for people who hold masters degrees. They can apply for jobs that require a bachelor’s degree but just might walk away with bigger bucks if they have that master’s degree instead.

In other cases, only those with higher ed need apply. Some positions require absolutely, positively no less than a masters degree and no one with a lower level degree will even be considered, no matter how convincing a personal sales pitch you can deliver.

It isn’t even necessary to have such a higher ed degree to qualify for better paying jobs. No matter where you stand on the education ladder, a higher ed degree is likely to be the key to get you hired at the next, better paying, rung.

So, why should prices be the only thing rising in your world? Higher ed is likely to increase your earning potential, making it so much easier to keep up with the rate of inflation.